Jackson may have shed debt

Posted: Monday, July 19, 2010

By Ryan Blackburn

The Jackson County School System may have climbed out of debt this year - a full year ahead of schedule - after making two rounds of layoffs, cutting into academic programs and scaling back on materials.

District administrators won't know until later this week just how much savings were accrued through the fiscal year that ended June 30, but they're confident they won't see any red ink, Superintendent Shannon Adams said.

"We're going to end in the black, but we don't know exactly how much yet," Adams said.

The Jackson County School System ended the 2008-09 school year $900,000 in the red, partly because of drastic midyear cuts in state funding. It was one of nine school systems that had to file a deficit elimination plan with the state Department of Education last year.

The deficit plan approved by the Jackson County Board of Education called for ending the fiscal year with a $155,000 surplus - but that didn't account for the possibility of midyear funding cuts from the state.

To get out of debt, the district slashed spending by $4 million by laying off 22 paraprofessionals and about a dozen teachers; closing a regional alternative school; and eliminating several administrative positions.

"We've had to make some cuts in some important areas," Adams said. "We had to cut back on those to make sure we didn't reduce the core academic offerings for kids, and we managed to do that."

Even if the school district ends the year with a surplus, it still may not be enough to satisfy the Education Department, which requires schools districts to maintain a reserve fund equal to how much 1 mill of property tax raises in a year, according to Jeff Sanchez, assistant superintendent for finance and information services.

That amounted to $1.7 million last year in Jackson County, but it could be considerably less this year, Sanchez said.

Still, it looks like the district's finances are climbing back into balance.

"We're excited about the potential of being completely out of this," Sanchez said.

The school board has not yet approved a final budget for the upcoming year, but tentatively has projected to spend $86.8 million, ending with a fund balance of $2.2 million.